Romanian/Hungarian pics

From behind the Brasov sign in Brasov, Romania (think like the hollywood sign). This was taken after a wonderful walk up the mountain (so what if everyone else took the cable car? the walk was awesome)










Jaime feeding a donkey at a castle in Transylvania. I'd have to give it some more thought to remember what it was called. It'll come to me. This was taken shortly before another donkey came up and bit my hand. But then again, we WERE feeding them.
ed. The place was called Rasov







This is one of the most (if not the most) beautiful castles I have seen. Again, I'd have to research to remember the name, but it was amazing. Unfortunately we got there too late to go inside, but it also meant that there was no one around, so it was really pleasant. It's in Transylvania too. We went to it the day that we hired a car out of Brasov. It's in the town of Sighisoara, which was wholly unimpressive, but the castle was wonderful.



this is kiwi Christine, in Eger, just out of Budapest, while her fiance and I made her do a drunk test. This was in a place called the Valley of the Beautiful Women, and it's renowned for its wine cellars (we spent the day on the wine cellar road, going from one to another, testing their wares - very tasty and very cheap).








This is Christine, Josh, and I in Eger during one of the wine tastings. Needless to say, it was a riot.

Madrid is full of museums - who would have thought?!

New post, new location: Madrid. I had a great time in Barcelona and can honestly say that it's a place I could see myself living quite easily (ok, once I get this whole 'spanish' thing down....or catalan, for living there...hm). I had been told before I got there that I was going to love it, so I was unsure what everyone was talking about. It really is a vibrant city though; I didn't even go out a lot (unlike most people at the hostel, from the sounds of it), but I somehow ended up staying up till at least2.30 every night. It just happens. Most nights, we didn't even end up going out for dinner until 10 or 11, so that tells you something. I'm trying hard to get used to this whole siesta thing though, where you have to try and judge if what you feel like doing that day (grocery shopping, clothes shopping, eating lunch out, whatever) is going to be open during siesta hours, cause otherwise you better forget it!
While in Barcelona, I ended up meeting this guy from LA (Darick) who was a lot of fun to hang out with, so it was kind of nice to have a partner in crime for my BCN adventures. We spent the days going to various museums (my doing), doing some clothes shopping (his doing), and drinking coffee, watching pretty spanish boys (the coffee part was DEFINITELY my doing, the boy watching is DEFINITELY his doing). So, one day was spent going out to see the Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's huge and incredibly impressive cathedral that is still under construction. I need to get some pics of that up here, cause it is amazing. Truly. That same day, we (and 2 Aussies) went up to Park Guell to check out the Gaudi stuff there in the park, and that was rad too. It really was so fun to just see all of this great architecture all over the city.
The next day, we went to the nearby town of Figueres to see the Dali museum. That was an experience. The day started off with us not being able to hook up with the 2 Aussie friends, then once we got to Figueres, it was pouring, so some really awesome lady ran to her car and donated her umbrella to the two drowned rat english speakers. Thanks Fashionista lady! (She was christened that due to her very fashionable umbrella, which also took on the name). So yeah, after wandering around the city in the pouring rain, we found the museum, and ate lunch as we watched the line get longer. oh well. The museum is incredible. It really is an experience in and of itself....I don't even know how to describe it. Very cool nonetheless.
My last day consisted of going to the Picasso museum in the city, which was pretty cool, and making a mad dash to the train station. After a miscommunication, I got the right reservation about a minute before my train to Madrid was supposed to leave. It meant that I got to bypass some lines though, and get onto my train! woot!
So yeah, now I'm in Madrid. It's cool and the museums rock. Other than that, it's kind of just a big city, but that's ok, because the Prado is amazing. =) I know, I'm a nerd. Today I'm going to another one of the museums, so it should be good. The crappy weather is following me around spain though. It's warm enough, but I got soaked yesterday. oh well, such is life.

Oh, the beauty of traveling...and being a retard.

Alright, so I know I keep doing this, but I really do apologise for the severe lack of writing lately. My last week or two has been slightly stressful (ok, stressful compared to the rest of the trip, not real life), as I think I've been getting tired and just not planning things as well as I should be.....I take complete responsibility for all the things that have happened over the last few days....except I do blame a minor miscommunication between dad and I for part of it.
Anyway, before I get to the misadventures of late, I'll just say briefly that I made it to Barcelona about an hour ago (took a night HOTEL train....no wonder it cost me the entire left side of my body in addition to my rail pass!!). Oh, and it's POURINg. I mean really raining. Luckily, I made it to the hostel just in time...but it's still really hot here. Hopefully it clears up after this shower, but we'll see. Oh, and it's a great looking hostel, with free internet again, not 1 euro per ten minutes...who ARE these people who charge these exorbitant rates? But yeh, this looks like a cool city...I think I'm going to enjoy it here, no matter what the weather. It's going to be weird not being able to talk to people except in english though. I was really getting the hang of this whole 'conversational italian' thing, and I really brushed up a lot on my rapidly decaying knowledge of the italian language, so for that.....woot!!
Back to the misadventures.
I think it started one day when I forgot to charge my cell phone. Then, in a small small small town in Italy (Roccasecca), I learned that they don't like stopping at platform 1...they need to use platform 1 tronco (so THAt's what 1T means...). Anyway, found that out as I saw the teensy train I needed leaving the mystery tronco platform. Not a big deal though - another train was coming by in an hour (I'd waited for 2.5 for the first train...good thing I'm rereading the Hobbit!). Bought a phone card to use in the pay phone to call the farm house I was going to, and proceeded to leave my life sitting on top of the pay phone (in the form of my little orange notebook into which everything goes). Didn't notice till I got to my destination, another small town named Sora. Such is life.
From there, I had a rad time in the farm house and wished I could have stayed longer. I learned how to properly make gnocchi and got up stupidly early the next day to visit a shepherd and learn how to make pecorino cheese at 5am. That night was a pasta and fagioli festival in the village nearby (for those uninitiated few, that means a party for pasta and beans....woot!!). It was a lot of fun and I learned to line dance, italian style...how great is that? Unfortunately though, I hadn't figured out how I was getting to Cinque Terre the next day, cause the farm has no internet. Hm.
The next morning, I got adopted by a mother and daughter pair who were heading to Rome via car (hey, Rome is closer than Sora to Cinque Terre). We got there, and I successfully found a train to Pisa (again, the right direction, right?). It was in Rome, shortly before running for the Pisa train (yes, running back to the platform I just came from...unfortunately Roma Termini is HUGE with moving sidewalks and everything), that I realised that it was Ferragosto, the biggest holiday in the summer, so EVERYthing was closed. No internet points to figure stuff out. Got to Pisa and found a train heading to La Spezia and all 5 CT towns, so I got on. It was around this time that some of you started getting phone calls.......and after being unsure if i gave my dad the right phone number to call back, I ran out of credit on my phone...thank god he called back. I really do thank you, dad! Unfortunately, we didn't have the greatest connection, and dad is dad, and I was confused when the directions to the hostel he gave me told me that it was in La Spezia itself. I remembered getting a hostel in a village somewhere, but hey...he just read the directions from my email, right? So I get to La Spezia and follow the directions, which take me to a bus stop. I think I was supposed to catch a bus from there, but with it being Ferragosto, there were no buses. I saw a sign for the hostel, and started walking. Little did I know that it was a mountain hike to get there....anyway, I wasn't sure I was on the right road and it was getting late and dark, and I found a restaurant to ask directions....this was after walking up a road up the mountain, with no sidewalk or shoulder on it. He told me I was crazy, since it was 930pm, but that I was on the right track. Just keep going for 4 more kms, and then take a right for 1km. ugh. Walked the 4km, got picked up by a girl on her way home from work who drove me the last 1km to the hostel. I'm so grateful for nice people. Got in at 1030, after 2.5 hours on the road. blah.
From there, I forgot I had nowhere to go afterwards, so I decided to skip the south of France for now (nothing available at such short notice) and take a really expensive night train to Barcelona. Cinque Terre was beautiful and I walked a lot, but here I am...one more new country.
Hopefully my tale of woe hasn't bored you too much. I'm sure it'll get better from here on in.

roman tales

I really apologise for the lack of posts....I tried a few days ago, but got cut off and lost what I had written. Such is life, I suppose.
I'm in Rome right now and it's raining. Ok, sort of spitting raining, but it's still good enough for me, and it has cooled things down some, which is nice for now. I feel like I'v been running since I got here, so I came back to the hotel (and no, I didn't spell that wrong - I'm staying in a hotel, not a hostel, but the hotel here has a couple of dorm rooms, so same deal) and crashed for an hour and a half. I really haven't been spending a lot of time checking out the nightlife of any of these places, but I just find it hard to get motivated sometimes.....who really wants to go to a club or bar or something and try to avoid the inane and usually annoying conversations (read: loud 'ciao! smile for me!'s) that are attempted in the street during the day? Beau, where are you when I need you?
Rome is a cool place. Every time you turn a corner, you find old city walls, or another set of ruins, or some baroque palace, or something of the sort, perfectly integrated into everyday life. It's kind of weird, but it works somehow. I spent today exploring the Vatican, standing in the seemingly long, but very fast moving line to get into St. Peter's Basilica first thing (bypassing the uber long and not moving line to get into the Vatican museum) and spent quite a while wandering around that place. Even though I had been there before, I think I had forgotten just how excessive and over the top that place is. REally, seriously. I mean, St. Peter's is everything the Protestants hate (and in fact, was one of their reasons for creating protestantism, if I remember my art history courses correctly).....I think the last time I was there, I missed out on a lot of it, not only because I was 15, and who knows anything at 15, but also because the pope had been in attendance, and that meant restricted access. Today I got to wander around freely...it was wild. After the basilica had worn me out, I went and stood in the much shortened line for the museum for 10 mins, and went inside. It's a cool place, with some interesting works in the picture gallery, but you can really tell everyone is there for the Sistine Chapel (or as I heard at least 2 groups of Americans call it, the Sixteenth Chapel). The Chapel itseld just recently had a facelift, so the colours are really intense....I think they did a decent job for the most part.....there were so many people in that room, it was hard to breathe though...cool to see, despite it all.
Hmm....yesterday was just wandering around the city, and I was a bit dismayed to find out that the Fontana di Quattro Fiumi (a rad fountain by Bernini) is under construction, but what can you do? Anyway....the Tuscan villa was awesome, and I ended up staying there an extra day. The bike ride to San Gimignano nearly killed me, as it is uphill (and I mean HILL) for over 2 hours on the way there, and neither derailer on teh bike worked well, so I only really had one gear that sort of worked......unfortunate. but the town is cool, and the ride home rocked. the days before that were spent in a cooking class, a chianti wine tour, and lying in a hammock, reading the hobbit. awesome. Anyway, I have to go check on my pasta on the hot plate, but I promise I'll try to write more frequently, now that internet doesn't cost 10 euro an hour...ciao

Florence is the only place for nerds like me....

Alright, so this is going to be quick, since I don't have loads of time and I need to go find my bed, seeing as I have to get up bright and early again to go to the Accademia...tough life, hey? Anyway....sorry it's been so long, but Venice was stupidly expensive...we're talking 10 euro an hour, so that just wasn't happening. I'm in Florence now, and am heading about an hour out of town tomorrow to a villa/farmhouse in a town called Certaldo. I'm really looking forward to it as a break from all of these cities, and apparently it's only an hour and a half bike ride to San Gimignano (and closer to some tasty wineries...). Having a great time in Florence, and am being a huge nerd, visiting all the places storing the art works I've been writing papers about for years! It's great. I'll catch up on the Hungary news next time. Oh, and it's SO nice being in a country where I can communicate with people...like having actual *conversations* with people in their own language. I'm loving it, even though my italian is even rustier than my french! No one seems to mind, and it even helped me find my hostel (thanks to the wonderfully helpful woman I found in the street!). that's it, that's all, goodbye. =)